Black History Month 2025: organisation spotlight

The community at the garden working together in the garden. Copyright: Coco Collective

Published: Tuesday 14 October 2025

As part of Black History Month, Roots to Work is spotlighting the work of three Black and People of Colour (BPOC) organisations within the UK food and farming system.

Black Growth is a grassroots Black-British led organisation creating safe spaces for the social and economic empowerment for the Black community in environmentalism and agriculture. This work has included hosting the Black Farmers Market in Brixton and pilotint South London’s first sliding scale Community Supported Agriculture programme which delivered two fresh veg bags a month to residents based in Croydon. On Saturday 25 October 2025 they are hosting a BHM Community Day.

Coco Collective is an Ital community garden and Afro-diaspora led food growing space in Lewisham, South London. With a focus on traditional plants and culturally diverse foods, they make the links between food, healing and health. They run regular events and volunteering sessions in Lewisham that are open to everyone. This includes everything from growing sessions to a discussion circle about delivering healthcare directly to Black communities, and culturally appropriate foods.

Black Food Fund provides grants to Black-led food projects in Lambeth and Southwark, London. They centre Black African and Caribbean knowledge and practice to advance food equity and justice by funding local Black growers researchers and food businesses. Their 2025 round of funding distributed £250k of grants.

Check out the organisations that we spotlighted in 2024, a previous session on growing culturally appropriate food or watch our Unearthing Empire webinar that explored the links between colonisation and the UK food system.

We are also sharing a recommended watch, read and listen this month:

Madan Sara: documentary film about the women who work tirelessly to ensure that food in Haiti makes its way to market.
Picky by Jimi Famurewa: a memoir of the food writer's relationship with food and growing up as a Black British boy.
Sonder & Salt: a podcast on Black British food in the UK.

If you are part of or know a BPOC-led organisations you can add them to the Culture Roots Collective directory.

Blogs • Sustain

Share

Sign up for news

Sustain: Sustain The alliance for better food and farming advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, enrich society and culture and promote equity.

Sareta Puri
Diversity Outreach Coordinator
Roots to Work

Sareta coordinates Sustain's diversity outreach work which aims to bring more people from underrepresented backgrounds, with specific focus on ethnic diversity, into the progressive food and farming sector. A core part of this work is outreach with younger people and students to inspire them to get involved in the movement. She manages Sustain’s Roots to Work jobs platform which is also a tool to engage new and diverse talent into the sector.

Sareta has worked freelance for several years in areas of sustainable food, community and diversity. This includes as chef, teacher and special project development at Made In Hackney community cookery school; ambassador for Be Inclusive Hospitality; and in several strategy and operations lead roles in plant-based food startups. Prior to being self-employed Sareta had a decade-long career in youth and education charities and holds a Masters degrees in Childhood Studies from The University of Edinburgh.

Staff profiles